Bermuda sends violent child sex offender to UK for treatment

HAMILTON, Bermuda (CMC) — National Security Minister Wayne Caines has confirmed that a violent 33-year-old Bermudian child sex offender has been sent to a high-security hospital in Britain for detention and treatment.

Merrick Seaman was transferred to the hospital in Northampton, in England's East Midlands, seven weeks ago after the Supreme Court ruled he would “likely” cause harm to the community if no action was taken.

Seaman had been held under the Mental Health Act at the Corrections Department's Co-Educational Facility at Ferry Reach in St George's for three months after he was moved from the high-security Westgate Correctional Facility in Dockyard.

In 2011, Seaman was jailed for eight years after he was convicted of a serious sex assault on a five-year-old girl.

“I can confirm that on September 4 Mr Seaman was transferred to a suitable clinical location in the UK for the necessary treatment. He is no longer under the care or supervision of the Bermuda Department of Corrections,” Caines said.

Then Chief Justice Richard Ground ruled the offender should serve his sentence at Westgate rather than be detained under a Mental Health Act order. Seaman was eligible for parole in April 2013 but it was recommended that his release should be delayed until the risk of him committing further offences was reduced.

He was given another psychiatric review the following year after he said: “I intend to go on a killing spree when I get out of jail.”

Seaman was convicted of wounding another inmate in 2016, which earned him an extra nine months on his sentence.

His earliest possible release date was June 15 but the government moved him to the CoEd two days earlier.

A Supreme Court judgment published in August showed the Ministry of Health and Bermuda Hospitals Board sought a hospital detention order to allow Seaman to be moved to a UK hospital.

Emcee Chekwas, a British psychologist, carried out a risk assessment and recommended that Seaman get further treatment as there was a “high risk” of further offences.

“The services likely to help him are currently unavailable in Bermuda and, even where intervention abroad could be secured, he will require long-term care,” the expert said.

Bermuda courts are expected to get progress reports on Seaman every six months.

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